Since I last posted, there’s been quite a bit of coverage around this topic, including several high profile posts that have referenced this series.

In part four, we’ll explore how to write for and initially reach bloggers more effectively, using existing and new tools and services. In part five, we’ll review outreach techniques for good old fashioned relationship building.

The previous article discussed, “Reaching the Blogosphere – Finding Bloggers in Your Market” using tools such as Technorati, Sphere, Google’s BlogSearch, Blogpulse, Alexa, CyberAlert, BuzzMetrics, Cymfony, and Umbria.

Now that we have walked through examples of how to identify the right bloggers for your market, we need to determine how to best reach them and why they should even receive your news in the first place.

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Story by Brian Solis, Photo credit: Marlette

In the last article, Reaching the Blogosphere Part Duex – working with enthusiasts to attract customers, we discussed the background, supporting info, and helpful tools to help you - with what’s available today.
To pick up where we left off:

1. Reach out to appropriate bloggers as part of your day-to-day PR program and
2. Do your homework to figure out which sites, blogs, etc. matter to your company and to your clients.

Blogger relations is a necessary addition to a PR program because citizen journalists, enthusiast bloggers, and accredited journalists with blogs, within a given community/market, can strongly influence consumer behavior. It is a perfect example of true peer-to-peer marketing, as well as channel for citizen and industry experts to reach anyone who’ll read their commentary – usually highly qualified consumers seeking insight and advice.

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By Brian Solis

In the last article, I discussed the challenges that are facing PR professionals when it comes to tracking and reaching the incredibly vast universe of bloggers. And, as Jeremy Pepper pointed out, I referenced mostly elite bloggers, which may have provided an incorrect reference point for the importance of bloggers in your target markets.

A few were simply referenced to demonstrate the power of influence that is possible to attain through blogging. Some overnighter citizen journalists are even rivaling traditional news and publishing outlets. The true point of the article though, was to encourage PR pros to

1. reach out to appropriate bloggers as part of their day-to-day PR program and
2. do their homework to figure out which sites, blogs, etc. matter to their company and to their clients.

This article (and the series) will provide background, supporting info, and helpful tools to help you do that easier - with what’s available today.

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Blogging has grown to become a great “disruptor” for PR. For those who are unfamiliar with the clout many blogs carry today, it has substantially grown from random musings, personal experiences, and op eds to full blown reporting across every category you could imagine. Some have even become rock stars in their own right, with PR associates tripping over themselves trying to get their attention.

In my field, which is rooted in tech, we have engadget, Michael Arrington’s TechCrunch, Stowe Boyd’s Message, Tom Foremski’s SiliconValleyWatcher, Om Malik’s GigaOM, among many, many, many others. For example, we had a client’s product (a very expensive gadget) featured on an important blog a few days ago, and by the end of the day, the company had already tracked two sales that stemmed from that post.

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When I was coming up in PR, I made it a point to attend key events related to my clients and their business, as well as anything related to PR. Over the course of 14 or so years, I met some of the most important and helpful people in my career – many of whom are still part of my circle of friends and business associates.

Somewhere along the way, I got too busy running things at FutureWorks and keeping things moving and shaking for our clients, and I found networking events slowly dropping out of my calendar. Instead, I was encouraging teammates to attend industry mixers and events, but when you lead by example, those around you mirror your actions – or in this case inactions. While we were busy making things happen in the trenches, the world around us was changing, new associations were forming, alliances were forging, and tomorrow’s leaders were shaking hands with those who would eventually help them succeed and grow together.

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